What are micro-moments and how do they apply to your mobile marketing strategy? In this video our website consultant, Brent Haeseker, talks to Justin Cook, our SEO expert about micro-moments. Together, they shed a lot of light on this important new trend in online marketing.
Full Transcription:
Brent Haeseker: Hi I’m Brent Haeseker, Web site consultant with NetSource Technologies and I’m here again today with Justin Cook our SEO expert. And today we’re going to talk about micro moments. Pretty big topic. I know there’s a lot of information that we can share on this and I’ve got a lot of notes on this. And just so you know too, where a lot of the information that I’m pulling from and a lot of the questions that I’m pulling from to ask Justin are coming from a Google document that they put out it’s like a 30 page document and it’s called micro moments Your Guide to Winning the shift to mobile. Again it’s a document produced by Google. So if you put in micro moments Your Guide to Winning the shift to mobile in the Google search engine this will pull up as the first result and you’ll know what we’re talking about here. If you want to get that document yourself it’s very useful. But again it’s like 30 pages. So we’re going to kind of pull out the best information from that and then also the best information out of Justin’s head. Put it all together mix it up and hopefully have some good information here for you today. All right great. Thanks for joining me again here Justin. And go ahead and tell everybody just exactly what are micro moments?
Justin Cook: So micro moments are the critical touch points that a user has with a business. So these are small educational moments for the customer during their buying cycle. So they started the awareness stage. They go to the research and they start their buying cycle and then the ultimate decision. So there are small moments within each day or even over a couple of weeks where a user will interact with a specific business. It can start with a informational intent, where they look for where is Florida for say on a map, to where is the best destination in Florida and then looking for a hotel, looking for flights down to Florida etc. etc. So these are small moments where users are looking for supplemental information to help them make the best buying decision.
Brent Haeseker: Now are micro moments just about the buying decision or do they apply to all aspects of what we know as the sales funnel where you’ve got the top is the research and just the awareness stage you get down to the bottom as you go to the sales funnel to the actual buying process. Does it just apply to that bottom part of the funnel ?
Justin Cook: No. So when we’re looking at the sales funnel and micro moments you can basically add several different layers within each different buying cycle so that can start when we’re at the awareness stage somebody not even knowing that they need something they’re still interacting with the business through their mobile device. So let’s say they’re on Facebook and they see an ad. They have no idea that they want to go to Florida and they want to go to the beach and maybe hang out with a couple friends there. But as they go through that process and they see that Facebook ad we can call that as a micro moment because they’ve interacted with some type of information that will get them started in the buying cycle.
Brent Haeseker: So you’re basically saying any stage of the sales funnel really these micro moments can apply and help out in getting to that bottom of the funnel and getting to the bottom process.
Justin Cook: With micro moments. We’re not focused on the end result. We’re focused on helping the customer and building that relationship. So if they see you the business as the main point for their research and their decision process then you are highly likely to get that purchase at that point.
Brent Haeseker: Some of the information that this document that Google put out talked about micro moments being snackable educational content. So it’s information that’s helpful on all those different phases of the funnel so that you’ve always got something to share with people that they’ll say hey this is really cool information and then helps to lead to the next bit of snackable educational content because a stat I saw and I don’t know if I have it right here in front of me. But it was re really interesting is that such a high percentage of people who actually are not loyal to any particular brand usually mobile users they’re going to go with whoever can give them the information they’re looking for at that particular point in time. So customer loyalty is actually kind of at a low. So if you can feed them that information when they’re looking for it on their mobile device then you’ve got a much better chance of getting to that bottom of that sales funnel and snagging that customer. So we know that applies anywhere to the sales funnel. Give us some examples. I know you gave us a few there but give us some other examples of maybe how a company could use these micro moments. Like a retail business is there something that you know I sell shoes or something like that. How would I utilize micro moments in my overall advertising?
Justin Cook: So with shoes if we’re going to take that as an example I have an online business and we sell exclusively shoes so what we would do there is people are going to search for shoes that are in style trending shoes maybe specific types of shoes, so like platform heels or sneakers or the most comfortable running shoes. So what we want to use there with the micro moments is when they are searching for what we call these I want to’s. So I want to know. I want to go, I want to buy, and I want to do. So there are different moments that each business can capitalize on. So for example I want to know if we’re looking for what of the most comfortable sneakers for running. And do I need wide or slim fit sneakers. What are the best soles for running. So those are types of I want to know moments that they’re only looking for information they’re not really that far down the cycle yet they just want to know what the best thing is.
Brent Haeseker: They’re just researching, again they’re at the top of that sales funnel so they’re just looking for information and just that research could then help them stumble on your products that you sell a nd since they’re on mobile devices, because I have more stats here that indicate ands again this is Google’s research that such a high percentage of people, I think it’s 90 percent roughly 90 percent are pulling out their cell phone at any given time when they think of something because they just go oh yeah I want to know more about shoes they’re standing at line at the post office or whatever. They pull out their phone and while they’re thinking of that particular thing and that’s the device they’re using to do so much of their research. So then you know what sole is the best sole for running. Like you said they are in the post office and they go Oh hey check out, That’s a pretty cool looking shoe and then they might remember that maybe when they get home to do a search on a particular shoe or pull it up on their phone and say what was the name of that? Oh OK and then they might do some more research on their laptop. Because they’re most people are utilizing multiple platforms now in order to make a purchase decision. And it’s not just Hey I go online I see what I like. I buy it. I’m done. They are going through various steps on various platforms. So we know that then obviously micro moments are very important for a business because obviously everyone’s using a mobile device now. We know that you’ve got to service things quickly. On the mobile in order to get people to pay attention what you’re doing on mobile. A Case study that that Google had mentioned was Wal-Mart had their Web site in 2014 took approximately I think it was like seven point six seconds in order to load on mobile. And they realized hey that’s too long so the next year they got it down to about two and a half seconds and they saw a major boost in their conversions and it roughly came out to about 2 percent improvement and conversions per second that they saved and so total was about 4 seconds that they saved in load time. That’s like 8 percent conversion. So obviously speed is also very important tell me a little bit about speed and how it plays into micro moments.
Justin Cook: So when we’re talking we discussed a little bit last time about AMP and why it is so important because people don’t want to wait around. We’re not talking about somebody that’s on a great Wi-Fi connection and you know they’re able to load it on their phone with no problem. Again we’re talking about somebody that’s on a 4G 3G network that he’s just walking around and he’s looking up some maybe for a restaurant near him. They want to know at that exact moment. With as much speed as possible. So having a landing page for those types of things where they’re looking for shoes or they’re buying or they’re looking for information on shoes. You want to have that page load as quickly as possible. So in the example of Wal-Mart I remember reading this case study that their online department really focused on making sure that every process made the speed better.
Justin Cook: So when we’re talking about every second saved is about 2 percent that’s exactly what happens and 8 percent for Wal-Mart is massive, it’s a lot of money. So you can only imagine what the translation could be for other businesses. When we start picking up the speed. So when they get to your Web site if it loads quickly, it loads fast. They’re more likely to stay on that page and read what you have. You have about 1 to 2 minutes to capture the user. After that they’re gone and they’re looking for something else. And if they get to the page and they don’t like the headline or it didn’t match exactly what the intent was when they were searching they’re gone. So you really have to be very good very focused and to capture those users and keep them on your page.
Brent Haeseker: Basically you have to anticipate their needs a lot when they’re coming to Mobile. So what would be some ways that you could do that? We could use the shoe example again and we wonder if there’s another example that would work well how do you anticipate the customer’s needs and do that on a mobile device and play into that whole micro moments aspect?
Justin Cook: So sometimes it’s not even something that you can inherently do yourself. So if we go back to the Florida example we’re looking for a hotel at this point. So we already know we want to go to Florida. We already know the location. Now they’re going to search on google what the best hotels are for. So you want to anticipate that they’re going to be on some of these bigger hotel sites so Hotel.com, Trivago, even Kayak. All these places have a lot of great information for hotels. You want to be on there because that’s where they’re probably going to go. You’re not going to show up and beat these guys that have a ton of budget and they’re going to be paying for it. You’re not going to beat them out. So you have to be there. You have to anticipate different types of searches that they might do so if you want to capitalize on somebody that’s looking for great destination spots in Florida. That’s a great blog. That is a great blog to use. And you can highlight some of the best cities and then why they should come to your city and your hotel for example.
Brent Haeseker: Red Roof Inn actually did something pretty clever with utilizing micro moments where they realized that there was a pretty large percentage of people that were getting stuck at airports. You know they’re missing their flights or the flights got canceled. And as a result they have to have a layover and have to stay a night or two or whatever so they’re realizing hey why don’t we do something to try and you know cause they need a place to stay. We’ve got hotels in the area so I don’t know exactly how they did it. I think they probably ran some ads around those airports. So things like that where they were targeting people around those airports serving them an ad saying “hey stranded? Come stay with us.” And they had a pretty big boost in conversions from that and got a lot of business from doing that by serving a need that people had at that time.
Justin Cook: I think that’s a very good point to touch on is that you have to know your customer needs and what are some stress points along their buying cycle. Even for something such as a flight gets canceled or it gets delayed. You know that’s not something that you normally think about for a hotel. That’s a stress point. But that is something that you can capitalize on. So finding those stress points along the buying cycle. What makes the user tick. what will get them deeper into your cycle and doing business with your brand.
Brent Haeseker: At that point those passengers that are stranded in the airport maybe they’re looking on their mobile device and they’re either looking for something fast and are like hey we’re going to stay in this area. So boom that was a perfect strategy for RedRoof Inn to realize that those people have immediate need and they’re looking on their mobile device and serving them information that they need at that given time. Which I think is really the key to a micro moments
Justin Cook: And that’s where we go back to speed. We’re on a Wi-Fi network at an airport. It’s not going to be going very fast for you. If somebody is sitting there even if they’re sitting out and they’ve already have been in four hours and they’re only searching on Google and they know they have another eight to 10 hours sitting there. There’s still going to be that impulsive, “I’m not waiting for this page to load because it’s taking too long.”
Brent Haeseker: In the document again that Google put out some of points that they mention that were important for micro moments was be there, be useful, and be quick. So I think that pretty much hits on the head as far as micro moments go.
Justin Cook: We are already discussed the be there. You have to anticipate these stress points. And when you do anticipate these stress points, being useful is being able to solve that issue for them. What is it you can do for them that will solve the issue that they’re having a hand. What does your business do for them? And then be quick is obviously making sure that that page loads because you can be there. You can have useful information but if it doesn’t load quickly, they’re not going to care.
Brent Haeseker: And it’s you know I hate to use a cliché but micro moments really allow you to kind of think outside the box and to do some creative and clever things to reach people in different ways and one way that’s pretty common, this isn’t as much thinking outside the box but “how to” videos. Everyone is using their phone to pull up a video of How do I do this how do I do that. You know how how do I best paint my wall or you know what’s the right kind of kind of paint to use and then they’re pulling up a how to video. Then Home Depot says oh hey here’s a video on how to paint your house and the right brushes use and how to apply the coats or whatever. So Home Depot actually by having a lot of those how to videos is capturing a lot of people online that are looking for those home improvement task and things like that so it’s just one example but how to videos are definitely a great way a lot of people are you know when they’re doing that home improvement they’re not usually doing it on their computer. They’ve usually got their mobile phone out there. While they’re painting their wall. Oh ok ok. Yeah that’s how you do it. So that would be a perfect micro moment as well as to have more content out there that’s useful how to videos is definitely a good example.
Justin Cook: That’s a good example. Blog postings. Even if you have a product and you have a description under there and it hits on some of the stress points that someone would search for. Those can be helpful as well just solving that question that they have will definitely get people to think higher you because of that it will start building trust with person.
Brent Haeseker: And again there’s also the context aspect of it. And to utilize again that you know you’ve mentioned the shoe store. Taking that into consideration again we’re the shoe retailer we’re selling shoes. What are some things that you can use to capture those potential customers? Is there a context that you can address like maybe somebody is wondering what’s the best time of day to run? Maybe you’re serving the information to them. You’ve got a retail store you also have an online store but maybe you also want to have information that’s accessible to them based on their location based on the time of day. You know you’ve got store hours from 9 to 5. Maybe you want to have information that differs between those different timeframes based on your availability. I mean there’s all kinds of ways of approaching these micro moments. Is there anything you can kind of explain a little further on that?
Justin Cook: Well it depends on intent. So if somebody goes for Google search and they say that I want to find a retail store near me or a clothing store let me make a more realistic clothing stores near me. It’s going to pull up a bunch of clothing stores it’s going to be a lot of the large department stores and then you’re also talking about some of the smaller businesses that will be around. So in that case since we talked about time of day for running, if we’re running ads to capture some of those users. We want to make sure that that’s during the day when our store is open. Obviously they don’t want to show up to a store that’s closed. For some of the more informational pieces if you have a retail store online and people aren’t looking to come to your physical location then those types of ads going on all day. They’re just coming to your store online and it doesn’t matter if it’s store hours at that point because it’s always open. So you’re looking for what the intent is of a user. So are they looking to come to my store? Are they looking to buy online? Are they looking for information? So if they’re looking to do one of those.
Brent Haeseker: Another good quote from the that google document says connecting people to what they’re looking for in real time and providing relevant information when they need it. So I think that pretty much summarizes
Justin Cook: One of the good examples that the Google document hits on is they unleash this big concept last year 2017 that these micro moments are really what we’re going to start pushing for in an advertising standpoint. It’s that when a user is driving around or they are walking around downtown let’s say. They are searching on their phones for something either to do or that they want to go to a restaurant and eat or they are looking for just in general somewhere to go shopping. So these are very important moments because these people are within a 10 mile radius of your business. It is a perfect point to capture them and bring them to your store or your restaurant or whatever business that that you are running and it’s more likely to lead to them coming to your store or making a purchase or even just building up your brand awareness that oh my gosh I didn’t know this store was there kind of thing. So you’re looking to capture them online and off line at the same time.
Brent Haeseker: Anything else you want to add, actually there is one thing, this is a good one right here. They said 90 percent of smartphone users say they’ve used their phones to make progress towards a long term goal or multistep process while out and about. And again I think that continues to make the point of why these micro moments are so important because they do as it says here helps the customer to chip away at the long purchase journey whenever they’re motivated to do so. So I think again that just kind of summarizes what we’re getting at here that everyone’s using their phone, well 90 percent, practically everyone’s using their phone to do these micro moments in their research process to find out what they want to buy where they want to go what they want to do. They’re basically looking to their phones to really tell them or to direct their lives to a certain degree nowadays. So you want to make sure that you’re there just having your website up and saying hey come visit us, it’s just not enough anymore. Reaching out and finding where they’re at and where these touch points are that you can you can grab them that are really the way to go.
Justin Cook: Yeah. And one of the biggest things that you have to think about is that you’re looking for customers even when they’re not looking for you. You’re looking to capture them before they even know that they need whatever product that you’re selling. So that’s a very important concept. With this 90 percent of smartphone users, you’re talking about somebody that maybe they have a long commute to work on a bus or they’re just at home just you know hanging out and they think of something that they want to do but they know that is not a realistic goal at this point and it’s a long term goal and they want to get to it at some point that’s going to be a lot of information searches. They want to know exactly how to do this. They want to know exactly where to go. They want to know exactly what they need. So these are all touch points that continuously could bring them back and if you have a good enough informational blog or how to videos you can get all of that information to them in one session. If they’re really motivated to sit down and listen to everything that you’ve put on your page excuse me you can get all of this information to them and solidify yourself as the brand that they should trust.
Brent Haeseker: And again the stats are showing that Google, again this is from Google, is showing that people aren’t, they’re just not as brand loyal anymore instead they’re looking for the information that gives that’s what they’re looking for at that given time. So if you’re feeding them that and that’s what they’re looking for then you have more of a chance of getting that customer than them being loyal to your particular brand. So again that’s why these micro moments are so important. So anything else you want to add. We could probably talk about micro moments for hours. And we are already at about 23 minutes here into the video so I don’t want to make it too long for people. We can always do a part two. But I think that pretty much gives people a good overview of micro moments. And again if you want to check out what document that a lot of this information is coming from a lot of the stats that we’re talking about it’s a Google document it’s called micro moments your guide to winning the shift to mobile. And of course also the rest of that information is coming out of Justin’s head. He’s very knowledgeable SEO expert here at NetSource. And we’ve got a full team of over 20 people here that are all here in-house. So we’ve got a lot of depth of talent here to be able to help with anything that you need online so feel free to give us a call if that’s something we can help you out with our number is 1 800 7 0 9 3 2 4 0. Again I’m Brent Haeseker, this is Justin Cook. And we thank you for watching today.